A piece by Geir Kirkeoboen and Gro Nordbye of the University of Oslo titled, Intuitive Choices Lead to Intensified Positive Emotions: An Overlooked Reason for “Intuition Bias”. Previous studies have shown that the way we make decisions has a direct effect on the experience of the decision we make. The focal point of their study is how intuitive choices and non-intuitive choices differ in the experience the decision-maker has after they make a choice in a conflict. The study shows that participants felt more positive feelings towards intuitive choices, over non-intuitive choices. Kirkeoboen and Nordbye argue that this amplified sense of personal connection and the “gut feeling” involved in making intuitive choices perpetuated the intuition bias in participants. Intuition bias can be defined as the phenomenon in which people rely on their intuition in order to make decisions, even in more serious and high-risk cases where they shouldn’t. Kirkeoboen and Nordbye’s study goes to show exactly how far people will go to feel that they have a sense of self-agency and autonomy over their choices in conflicts.

 

This study provides a substantial amount of information in regards to intuition and the positive pay off it has on the individual making the decision. This can be applied to the line of research our group plans to pursue because SBDAs tap into this sense of intuition starting from their app’s interface. Tinder’s app design is minimal and straight to the point, tailored to be extremely user friendly. A user is allowed to upload 6 photos, a 500 character bio, and attach additional information such as a link to their Spotify account, the university they attend, and how far they are from the user. With such a small and limited amount of information provided, SBDA users decide if they are interested in pursuing a potential relationship with someone else. Granted, people are on these SBDAs for different reasons, whether it is to search for a long term relationship or for an ephemeral, purely physical bond, it begs the question of how do they make such a significant decision in a matter of seconds; is it the bio or the photos that sway someone to make this pivotal, split-second judgment. With that being said,  for our research, we aim to understand how exactly intuition works in relation to people’s attraction on Tinder and Bumble.